Ohtani will be on the Angels’ opening-day roster, two high-ranking Angels executives told USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity since no roster decisions need to be revealed until March 29. He’s tentatively scheduled to pitch their third game of the season, March 31, against the Athletics at Oakland Coliseum. He also is scheduled to be in their opening-day lineup as their starting DH.

Ohtani’s roster spot will come in spite of his unsightly 16.20 ERA in two spring-training ...

The ability to heave hand grenades has been oft mentioned as a point in favor of the ball player as a war prospect. Outfielders have been declared especially adapted for the peculiar heave required to effectively shoot the hot ones into the ranks of the foe. That there is a more important feature to the grenade business still is indicated by late reports which pronounce catching grenades of more importance than heaving them. The thing, it ...

“My ball just didn’t have anything on it,” Musgrove said. “I had a hard time breaking 92 [mph] out there. But I feel good. I don’t feel like I’m hanging it all right now. I feel like I had another inning in me, or two.”

Manager Clint Hurdle agreed with Musgrove’s assessment.

“The two-seamer, when it was down, was really good,” Hurdle said. “The fastball command overall was probably inconsistent. I thought he used his ...

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

A turn in the Mets rotation made up of Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, and Zack Wheeler has never happened. Not in any order. Any time the guys have been up in the majors, at least one of them has been injured.

In 2015, when the Mets had the best chance of this rotation order working with four of these pieces rolling, Wheeler was sidelined after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

His recovery carried into 2016, and in 2017, it was Harvey, Matz, and Syndergaard’s turns ...

The 84-year-old — getting ready for his 48th season calling games for his hometown Brewers — told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the poisonous venom of a brown recluse spider nearly stopped him from returning to the game that he loves after he got bit in October in the backyard of his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I had a pair of shorts on,” Uecker told the newspaper. “I got bit by a spider but I didn’t know ...

There is much gloom and sadness in St. Pete these days, because one of the best little plans that ever split the plate has been wrecked beyond repair. Al Lang, the hustling Mayor, is wearing a grouch and other members of the welcome-to-our-city club are disconsolate. They have been foiled, and the worst part of it is that no one can be blamed, not even themselves.

On Monday night it was decided to have a monster celebration to welcome the ...

Pitcher George Foster, star of the Red Sox hurling staff in the 1916 world’s series, announced today that he had quit the game. He will devote his future to raising hogs. The contract Boston offered Foster this season specified a cut of $2000 in salary. This is said to have prompted Foster to quit. Foster is building one of the biggest hog ranches in [Oklahoma].

I can see why he’d have been upset. Foster was still in his 20s and a good pitcher, had a career ERA+ ...

A massive government spending bill that Congress is expected to consider this week could include a provision exempting Minor League Baseball players from federal labor laws, according to three congressional officials familiar with the talks.

The exemption would represent the culmination of more than two years of lobbying by Major League Baseball, which has sought to preempt a spate of lawsuits that have been filed by minor leaguers alleging they have been illegally underpaid.

Scioscia said they aren’t yet sure when Ohtani’s next start would be. Assuming five or six days rest, the schedule he’s been on all spring, that would be either next Thursday or Friday.

It’s also possible he could pitch in a minor league game so they can ensure he gets up to the 90 pitches he needs to start the season. Ohtani threw only 50 pitches in Friday’s game, then went down to the bullpen for another three innings worth of work, Scioscia said.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Wally Schang is playing third base for the Red Sox in their practice skirmishes [in Arkansas]. Manager Barrow will not admit that Schang will continue to hold down the hot corner, but he keeps the former Philadelphia catcher right out there facing sizzlers.

Babe Ruth at first, Johnny Evers at second, [Everett] Scott at short and Schang at third is the line-up of the infield right now.

Man, things are so bad in Boston that they’ve got a pitcher playing first ...

Al Timme, president of the Milwaukee club, is probably the busiest man in the world today, answering communications from baseball men who want to manage the Brewers, now that it is clear Ned Egan, hired for that job, is out of the game for the year. Egan, who injured his spine in a skating accident, is in a bad way.

When I first saw this, I thought it was kind of amusing: An ice skating accident ending a manager’s season. But the more I read about it, the more ...

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

At all levels of Minor League Baseball, extra innings will begin with a runner on second base. The runner at second base will be the player in the batting order position previous to the leadoff batter of the inning (or a substitute for that player). By way of example, if the number five hitter in the batting order is due to lead off the 10th inning, the number four player in the batting order (or a pinch-runner for such player) shall begin the inning on second base. Any runner or ...

The story of how Arthur Fletcher nearly lost a pair of fingers from his right hand reached [New York] on Thursday. The star Giant shortstop was trying to count the revolutions of the fans in his motor with the two fingers. He escaped with bruises.

He was back in spring training with the hope of playing again. He wasn’t doing much, but the hope was there, pending further medical evaluations. Now those evaluations are in and, while not necessarily surprising, are not good.

The mystery as to why Harold Ruel of the Yanks was nicknamed “Muddy” was explained by [Yankees team secretary] Harry Sparrow, who says it is because Ruel’s uniform while at Memphis was always the color of the Missouri, part of the Mississippi river. He never had his unirofm washed while on a hitting streak, and, as he always hit well, the flannels never saw any water.

Bill James mentions a completely different story in the Historical Baseball Abstract, in which ...